From the country's president to its tightly knit hockey program, the Czech Republic is reeling from the death of national team icon Ivan Hlinka.

In the same week he was to open the team's World Cup training camp, the 54-year-old gold-medal winning coach of the 1998 Olympic squad died yesterday from injuries sustained in a car crash Sunday outside of Prague.

"Oh, this is such a tragedy," Czech goaltender Tomas Vokoun told The Toronto Sun in a phone interview.

"I just talked to him two days ago (at a Czech League awards ceremony). This is all so sudden. He was as good a coach as he was a player. It's as big a loss as it was for the Americans when Herb Brooks died last year."

Brooks, who put Team USA on the hockey map by guiding them to the 1980 Olympic championship, also lost his life in a car accident, when his mini-van rolled on Aug. 11, 2003 while driving through Minnesota. Ironically, Hlinka replaced Brooks as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the start of the 2001-02 season, the year Hlinka and Finnish-born Alpo Suhonen became the first European coaches in the NHL.

Reports say Hlinka's car collided with a truck late Sunday night near Karlovy Vary, about 70 miles west of Prague. Hlinka's ribs were severely damaged among his other injuries.

Hlinka played on Czechoslovakia's national team during the 1970s and 1980s and was a part of world championship teams in 1972, '76 and '77. He was one of his country's first NHL exports, playing two seasons with the Vancouver Canucks from 1981-83. He began coaching in the late 1980s, starting with his original club team, Litvonov.

"He did a tremendous job for our country at home and abroad," Czech president Vaclav Klaus said in a public message of condolence to Hlinka's wife, Libena, and their son. "His place -- not only in the world of hockey -- will remain empty for a long time. I personally knew Ivan very well and I admired and respected him very much."

Vokoun says concentrating on the World Cup will be almost impossible this week for the team, which includes Jaromir Jagr, Dominik Hasek and Leafs defenceman Tomas Kaberle.

"We don't know what will happen with another coach, but right now we're not thinking hockey," Vokoun said. "We've lost a coach, but a family has lost a husband and a father."